Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Where she stops, no one can say

Victoria Williams has one of those voices that you either enjoy or you can't stand. It's nasally and high-pitched at times and sounds as if it belongs to a cartoon character from the 30s. Her songs, especially her older ones (since I haven't heard a lot of her newer work) are southern yarns, tales of crazy characters from small towns. Victoria has MS and as a musician didn't have health insurance and so there was a benefit CD released for "Sweet Relief" which is an organization that was created after the tracks were laid down to provide insurance to such artists. The benefit CD is pretty interesting as it has a lot of 90s bands and artists like Pearl Jam, the Waterboys, Matthew Sweet, Evan Dando and Michael Penn covering her weird songs. Nowadays she performs with her husband, former Jayhawk Mark Olsen, as the Creekdippers. (FYI- Mark and fellow Jayhawk Gary Louris just finished doing some dates on the west coast as an acoustic duo.) These two story tracks are from the 90s Swing the Statue CD. They're very childlike and I don't just mean their content, but the instrumentation and the composition and delivery too. You either will really enjoy them or hate them, I suspect there will be little middle ground. Ditto for the kiddles.

Victoria Williams, "Tarbelly and Featherfoot"
Victoria Williams, "Boogieman"

More about: Victoria Williams
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3 comments:

deb in sf said...

I'm a day behind, but certainly not short on comment...

I'm in the "enjoy them" camp. Some of my favorite singers have the least common voices - Iris DeMent kills me, Rickie Lee Jones... Well, Vicoria Williams is like that too. The emotion and storyteller. The guts get through and that really does it for me. Love hearing new (to me) stuff.

Deb in SF

Are We There Yet? said...

Ah yes, big Rickie Lee Jones fan. Was thinking of posting "Woody and Dutch on a slow train to Peking" ... maybe I will.

Anonymous said...

We all the love Ms.Williams here at our house, and her hubby's band the Jayhawks. Wht just today we were singing along to the Jayhawks on our way to a playgroup. Thanks for sharing you love of her music with those who may not be as priveedged!!!